Epizode Festival opened its first year in style

It's about 8pm in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and the city formerly known as Saigon is like a futuristic, neon-drenched utopia. We've been travelling for about 20 hours and although tired, we decide to have a night on the town before we move onto the next part of our expedition. Bui Vien in District 1 is the strip that's boasting numerous, garishly lit bars and drinking spots. With pumping EDM and laughably big Nos balloons on offer in abundance, it's a far-cry away from our final destination.

For two weeks in January, the island of Phu Quoc, about an hour's flight from Ho Chi Minh, played home to Epizode Festival, the latest incarnation from the team behind Kazantip. Between December 31 and January 14, the festival took over one of the many pristine beaches on the island and for two weeks, the music rolled on and on. A non-stop that lasted 14 days with a soundtrack of sun-soaked tech house, techno and even some dubstep thrown in for good measure.

We arrived for the final four days of the festival and if you could brave the 32 degree heat during the day section, you were treated to views of the ocean that went on for as far as the eye could see. The sunset around 6pm every day was a particular highlight, with everyone gathering to see out the end of the day with ambient electronica melting in the background.

For the most part though, the festival really came alive at night, with the majority of the crowds arriving around 1am and partying through to the following afternoon. The line-up boasted a who's who of tech talent, with the likes of Sammy Dee, Binh, Edu Imbernon and Maayan Nidam throwing down some serious heat. That coupled with a huge array of undiscovered selectors, there was enough to satisfy anyone's musical desires.

As far as locations for festivals go, Epizode have found the perfect spot. Beautiful views, amazing stage design, on-point soundsystems that bellowed and a vibe that delicately treads the line between relaxed and awe-inspiring. With another edition in the pipeline for later in the year, it seems Epizode will build upon their first chapter and continue to expand. If anything, it acted as the perfect reason to escape the January blues and to visit Vietnam. A beautiful country steeped in history and culture, the festival gives you the auditory injection while exploring fulfils your need to discover.

Here, we focus on the music, and we've compiled some of the tracks that really summed up our time on the island.

Epizode, we'll be back.

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor, you follow him on Twitter or find him on the beach sipping on a coconut

The first track we mention could well be the best one we heard all weekend. Not because it's a groundbreaking new dub that we'd never heard, not because it was a cold slab of bumping tech and not because we're huge fans of Whitney. It was a case of circumstance, environment and sheer joy taking over our minds and bodies that morning. Eggs Dancefloor was the site's smallest stage and its name comes from the fact it's surrounded by huge sculptures that housed fluorescent glowing eggs, twinkling in the darkness.

The first night we arrived, Sammy Dee was tasked with bringing the sunrise in with style. He played 5-7am and the Perlon mainstay expertly blended slamming house with more intricate, techier numbers. His last tune however was this Kraftwerk and Whitney mash-up and with the sun raising higher with every croon of Whitney's voice, we soared the highest we'd been all weekend too. There aren't many tracks that will top that moment on the beach.

The following day/night, we were so hungover. We're talking savage. We drank bottles and bottles of prosecco till the early hours, a large amount of which we'd offered to Sammy Dee, so we arrived at the festival around 1am having missed the day section. Our main port of call was the Freesby Dancefloor, the main stage for the festival that was covered by a giant UFO-shaped frisbee. This was where most people saw the majority of the festival and it played host to acts like Julia Govor, Matt Tolfrey and Claptone.

The music had been super-varied up to this point, with house, techno and even some wall of noise, ambient stuff thrown in but it was an Arma17 showcase and anyone who's familiar with the Russian institution knows that the musical output is nothing short of top drawer. As we arrived Rayo, an artist we hadn't heard of before, was warming up, although warming up would be putting it lightly, he was throwing it down. He built a really nice groove from the off and his tech house had a sense of urgency and swing to it. His last track before handing over was 'Cozmoport' by Scsi-9, a favourite from Craig Richard's fabric CD and an instant favourite of the festival.

Once Rayo had finished it was time for Maayan Nidam to play and as the second Perlon act we'd locked into, she didn't disappoint. Despite some technical difficulties with the vinyl decks, she managed to skilfully take charge of an extended set as the sun came up. Being a primarily vinyl-only DJ, the realisation that the equipment isn't up to scratch as you step up is enough to throw even the most talented selector off, but Nidam performed with a prowess and delicacy rarely seen on a festival stage.

Her set weaved between trippy techno and intricate house rumblers and it kept the audience captivated and interested throughout. Sammy Dee of course watched and danced on behind and it was a real treat to see Nidam perform on the Vietnamese beach. Considering she plays sets all over Europe with stops at Panorama Bar a regular occurrence, it was nice to experience this sort of set with the sun rearing its head in the background instead of in a pitch black room.

Now if there was one act that everyone at the festival flocked to see, and one that is synonymous with Russia's bubbling electronic scene it's Tyoma. Otherwise known as Artem Harchenko, the DJ and producer was a huge force in the creation and running of Epizode. He's almost somewhat of a celebrity at the event too, with people running over to greet him every few minutes and dancers making sure they were front and centre for his numerous sets over the two weeks. We caught Artem play three times over our 4 days and every single time we had a reason to smile and just as much reason to believe the hype behind the man.

We saw him play when we arrived on site for the first time to watch the sunset. His live show was the soundtrack for one of the most tranquil and picturesque moments of our trip. Ambient and sweeping electronica drenched the beach and at one point someone even likened the set to the film Gladiator on the basis of how 'epic it sounded'. We also saw him play after Claptone on our last night where he launched straight into a tirade of heavy hitting techno and party classics ('Flat Beat' by Mr Oizo was a particular highlight) but our favourite experience was at sunrise.

He took to the decks on Eggs Dancefloor at around 6am and played smooth, happiness-soaked house music, the perfect accompaniment to beach-side dancing. Our group of four, dressed in matching kimonos, back on the prosecco, lost our shit and his smile ear-to-ear was only matched by the ones we were brandishing. Theo Parrish's remix of Carl Craig typified a huge festival for Tyoma, a name we'll be firmly keeping our eyes on.

What track rundown would be complete without a 'hands-in-the-air' moment and Andrew Meller's tech house reincarnation of Underworld's 'Born Slippy' provided a few of those. With Trainspotting 2 now in cinemas, we joked as to whether this track getting dropped was some sort of next-level, guerrilla marketing campaign but we thought that too farfetched. Alas, on our first night, Edu Imbernon dropped the monstrous remix and it got an ok response but when Claptone played it on the closing night of the festival, it really went down.

The prolonged vocal that everyone loves a sing-a-long to was received extremely well and although the magic had been slightly lost to us the second time round, it still acted as the auditory relief that was needed after such a four-day binge of house and tech. And that was Epizode Festival, a brilliant first edition that once fine-tuned and its imperfections tweaked, will be a fine addition to the festival calendar.

January blues....cured.